NAME OF APPLICANT: Gron Fuels, LLC. c/o Elliot Boudreaux of CSRS, Inc., 8555 United Plaza Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA 70809.
LOCATION OF WORK: At mile marker 62 on the GIWW, in Sections 12, 28, 94, 95, 96, 98, and 99, Township 7 South, Range 12 East, along North Line Road in Port Allen, Louisiana, in West Baton Rouge Parish, within the Terrebonne Basin in hydrologic unit (HUC 08070300), as shown on the attached drawings (Latitude 30.438961 N, Longitude -91.234305 W).
CHARACTER OF WORK: The applicant has requested Department of the Army authorization to clear, grade, excavate, dredge, and deposit fill and/or aggregate material to construct and maintain a renewable fuels manufacturing facility to include a renewable feedstock pretreatment unit, hydrogen plant, hydroprocessing unit, feedstock and finished product tank farms, loading/unloading facilities, substation, retention pond, wastewater treatment facility, supporting utility systems, and administration building. In addition to the facility, the project includes installation of an approx. 2.5-mile pipeline corridor, three onsite water wells to be drilled into the Mississippi Alluvial Aquifer, and construction of a marine terminal along the GIWW. Approximately 115,000 cubic yards of material would be dredged from the GIWW and redeposited to an onsite placement area. Approx. 1,930 cubic yards of stone and approx. 3,575 cubic yards of limestone and earthen fill will be hauled in and deposited to construct structures and achieve required grade elevation requirements. The proposed project would impact approx. 2.48 acres of jurisdictional wetlands, 8.67 acres of traditionally navigable waters, and 953 linear feet of non-wetland waters of the U.S. This project proposes a tie-in with the West Baton Rouge Parish Treatment Facility which is being evaluated for a separate authorization (MVN-2021-00382-CQ) and abuts the proposed Port of Greater Baton Rouge Rail Chambering Yard also under separate evaluation (MVN-2022-00593-CG).
The applicant proposes to avoid additional direct impacts and minimize secondary impacts to the maximum extent practicable by avoiding jurisdictional wetlands in the design of the main facility, limiting the construction activity to the designated construction areas onsite, utilizing rip rap and silt fencing utilize during construction as temporary erosion control measures and including sheet piles, armored cut slope, and rip rap as permanent erosion and scour control measures along the GIWW, sharing a wastewater effluent corridor with West Baton Rouge Parish to further reduce impacts and disposing of all cleared vegetation onsite within upland project areas. If authorized, the project will receive approval from all appropriate local drainage authorities. As compensation for unavoidable wetland impacts, the applicant proposes to use a Corps approved mitigation bank within the watershed of impact.